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Now, let's dive into the podcast. We live in a world that pushes us right to the edge of our time, our capacity, and especially our finances. Hi, I'm Rob West. Every hour gets scheduled, every dollar gets spoken for, and before we know it, we're living without space to breathe. Today we're talking about living with margin, why it's essential for wise stewardship.
And then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7,000. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Margin is simply the cushion between our limits and our load, the space between what we could do and what we actually do. And scripture presents margin as wisdom, not luxury.
Proverbs twenty one twenty tells us, Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it. In other words, wise people don't consume everything they have. They leave space, they build reserves, they plan ahead. The foolish run to the edges, spending everything as fast as it comes in. And one of the most beautiful biblical images of Margin comes from the book of Ruth.
In Leviticus 23, 22, God instructs his people not to harvest their fields to the edges. They were to leave grain behind for the poor, the widow, and the foreigner. Boaz obeyed that command. He left space. He didn't maximize every inch of profit.
And because of that, Ruth and Naomi survived. That simple act of obedience set in motion a story of redemption that led not only to Ruth's marriage to Boaz, but also to the lineage of King David and ultimately to Jesus Christ. Margin makes room for God to work. But maybe the simplest example of margin is found not in a field, but in a book. Think about a beautifully designed page.
The words don't run from edge to edge. They don't overwhelm the eye. There's space around them, room that allows the page to breathe. Without that space, the text would feel chaotic, stressful, and impossible to absorb. Our lives are just like that.
When we fill every minute of our schedule, every dollar of our budget, every ounce of our emotional energy, life becomes hard to navigate. We can't think clearly. We can't rest. We can't respond to God's promptings because we're crowding every corner of our existence. And that applies to our finances as well.
When we spend everything we earn, even minor disruptions like a car repair, a medical bill, or a shift in income become crises. But when we build margin into our finances, those disruptions become manageable. They no longer derail us.
So, what does margin actually do in your life? A lot more than you might think. When you create space in your finances, three powerful shifts begin to happen. Margin creates space for rest. When we're not bound to every financial obligation, we can breathe, we can Sabbath, we can stop and enjoy God's presence without guilt or pressure.
Margin creates space for faith. When we don't consume every dollar, we begin to trust that we are not our own provider. God is. And when we leave space, we give Him room to show up. Margin also creates space for generosity.
We can say yes when God prompts us to give. When we live at the edge of our means, we lose the capacity to respond to the needs of others. Ultimately, margin is a spiritual discipline. It's not just about saving money. It's about creating room for God's provision, God's pace, and God's purposes in your life.
It changes the way you give, the way you think, and the way you live.
So, how do we begin creating margin?
Well, it starts with one foundational step: spend less than you earn. That's simple to understand, but very challenging to practice. It means building a budget with breathing room. It might require saying no to good things, so you can say yes to better things. Margin doesn't just appear though.
It's created when you intentionally choose to live below your means. That space is what allows you to give, to save, and to trust God with the difference. If you want to go deeper into this, I actually wrote about this in my new devotional, Our Ultimate Treasure: A 21-day Journey to Faithful Stewardship. It comes out next month, and you can pre-order your copy or place a bulk order by visiting FaithFi.com and clicking Shop. And if you want to start reading the digital version, it'll be available in the FaithFi app later this month.
You can do that when you become a FaithFi partner at faithfy.com/slash partner. Boaz probably never imagined that leaving a little grain behind would shape the family line of the Messiah. Yet, God used his obedience to accomplish something eternal. The same is true for us. When we live with margin, we discover that it's not just about saving for the future, it's about creating space for God to write his story through us.
Back with your questions after this. Stick around. What we do is very special and it's very unique. This is Bethany. She is a Certified Kingdom Advisor.
I became a CKA because we're not building bigger barns and we're not trying to figure out how we can just amass more and more and more. We're figuring out how much do you really need? What are your priorities? What has God called you to? And then how can we give it away?
How can we be more generous? You can find an advisor like Bethany at findaceka.com. Uh Faith in Finance is grateful for support from Soundmind Investing. If you have money in an investment account, you know sometimes the stock market can seem like a roller coaster. But it's possible to enjoy both profit and peace of mind as a do-it-yourself investor, no matter what's happening in the market.
A short video webinar about that is available at soundmindinvesting.org. Financial wisdom for living well.
Soundmindinvesting.org. Hey, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. We've got lines open. We're ready for your questions, 800-525-7000.
Call right now. Let's begin out in Kansas today. We'll welcome Judy to the broadcast. Go ahead. Hi, thanks for taking my call.
I've gotten a notice from my bank It's an arbitration provision and class action waiver, a dispute resolution by individual arbitration. What does that even mean? Yes. Are they asking you to decide it and return it? Or what?
There's no place to sign, but I have the right to opt out. And I don't, first of all, I don't know what it means. I don't know what happens if I opt out. I'm just confused by this. Yeah.
Well, I would say, you know, generally speaking, and obviously these ultimately come down to legal matters.
So you could get some legal counsel here. And arbitration might be the right choice for some cases. Essentially, arbitration, Judy, is where you're settling a dispute by a third party and it's intended to be objective and independent and avoid the high cost of getting the court involved. Binding arbitration is becoming more common for resolving disputes in the financial services industry.
Sometimes you can't open an account without agreeing to use the process. Individual arbitration seeks to resolve the situation where only one individual or entity on each side is involved rather than multiple parties.
So the big idea is that it's faster and cheaper than a court and maintains confidentiality. I would say critics might argue that it stacks the deck against customers. But here's what I would say. I think it's generally a good idea to opt out of forced arbitration to preserve your options. And the idea here is that you can always agree later to use an arbitrator to resolve any dispute.
And if you've opted out, you're going to have more negotiating power if there ever is a problem.
So, if it were me, I would probably opt out and retain my right to litigate, but considering how costly that might be, recognize that I might want to take the arbitration option when that time comes. Does that make sense? That's great advice, yes. I just had no idea what I was looking at here.
Okay, very good. Yeah, I realize sometimes the fine print can be challenging to understand when we're getting into legal terms, but hopefully that's helpful as you think through what might be the best option for you. We appreciate your call today. Lord bless you. Let's go to Mississippi and welcome Roy.
Go ahead, sir. Yeah, I'm a I'm a truck driver. Um I'm sixty two, so I got a few years before I can retire. But I've got to the point to where I've got extra money from my payroll, and I was thinking about invest in a little bit of it. But I'm not sure about this market, but I was wanting to see what your take was on crypto or Bitcoin.
Yeah.
Very good.
Well, you know, it still is, and we're seeing this, you know, as of late, incredibly volatile. But I think with regard to the crypto space, there's really Bitcoin and then there's everything else. Bitcoin clearly stands apart from the rest of the crypto industry.
So that's the first point. Second is that Bitcoin has reached really critical mass and really appears to be here to stay. That's really due to two major changes in just the past few years. One is the regulatory environment, which is completely reversed from being hostile to being welcoming. You know, we said a few years ago that the regulatory risk was an existential threat to the whole industry and really the biggest risk to crypto investors.
But today, now we've got Bitcoin ETFs that have been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and we've got the first openly pro-crypto president, President Trump, sitting in the Oval Office. It's been a complete 180. And that shift in the regulatory environment and the The approval of those Bitcoin ETFs has really opened the door to institutional adoption, which means now the big players with big money and influence are now allocating to Bitcoin. And so, Bitcoin really has arrived.
Well, I would say everything else in the crypto space is still in the prove-it stage where most of those projects aren't going to survive. And that makes Bitcoin really, you know, and everything else, apples and oranges. With regard to how you might think about investing it, Bitcoin, like gold, is a store of value that can protect your purchasing power against the constant debasement of government currencies. And I know it may sound crazy to call an asset that routinely drops in value as much as it does a store of value, and yet it has scarcity built into its DNA because there's a strict limit of 21 million Bitcoins that will ever be produced. And that gives its appeal to investors.
Watching the continual debasement of the fiat currencies by global governments and central banks.
So, you know, I think a lot, you know, Bitcoin investors like it for a lot of the same reasons that older investors have always liked gold. It's a separate asset class, it can resist debasement and it holds its value while other forms of quote money become less valuable over time.
So, let's get to your question with that as the backdrop. How much? You know, I like it as a part of your gold allocation. You know, there's a reason they call it digital gold because it has some of the same characteristics. And so, I would cap out your gold allocation at 10%.
And so, if this fits inside of that, I would say the Bitcoin portion of that is probably no more than, you know, one to 5% of your 10% total allocation or potential allocation of gold. And you might say, well, that's not a whole lot. And that's right. I would just keep it small because it's speculative, it's a long-term play, it's extremely volatile. And therefore, you know, I would have the bulk of your investments in a really well-thought-out, properly diversified stock and bond portfolio.
Does that make sense? Right. It does, and it's kind of in line with what I was thinking because I didn't want to just dump a whole bunch into it, not knowing the outcome.
So that yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Okay, excellent.
Well, listen, Roy, appreciate you calling today. What are you hauling? Are you out on the road right now? I am. I'm empty at the moment.
I'm headed to uh Mississippi to pick up a load and Well, thanks for keeping our economy functioning, my friend. Thank you, sir. I appreciate you. All right. Take care.
800-525-7,000 is the number to call. We'd love to hear from you today with your financial questions. Again, that number 800-525-7000. You know, a little bit more on this question that Roy had. You know, when you start to think about Bitcoin through the digital gold lens, it's easy to see how it appeals to younger investors for the same reasons that gold appeals appear, I should say, appeals to older investors.
You see, both groups see the potential dangers of currency debasement and are looking for ways to insure against it. But younger investors are more comfortable with digital assets. You see, they've grown up on the internet, you know, transacting within video games and app stores and so on.
So it's not an uncomfortable leap. To do the same thing with an online investing account. And let's face it, there's still a speculative, as I said before, aspect to Bitcoin that appeals to younger investors. And, you know, what's really interesting is the correlation between Bitcoin and gold has dramatically increased over the past three years.
Now, as of late, we've seen a little more, whereas gold's been going straight up and Bitcoin has two, we've seen a little bit more volatility in the Bitcoin portion with some sell-offs. But I think it confirms that it's shifting store of value use case. And suggesting that those institutional investors I mentioned a moment ago are becoming bigger players in the Bitcoin space. And so, certainly something to take a look at, but don't go crazy on it. Again, I'm saying, you know, it's part of that up to 10% gold allocation.
Maybe go a little higher than 10% on your gold, but I think that Bitcoin is more like 1%, 2% at the most 5%.
Alright, back with more questions after this. Stick around. As the leading advocate for the Christian financial industry, Kingdom Advisors serves the public by promoting the integration of a biblical worldview across every aspect of the financial services industry. And we serve a growing network of thousands of Christian financial professionals, equipping and empowering them to carry biblical financial wisdom to their clients, peers, and community. For more information, visit kingdomadvisors.com.
That's kingdomadvisors.com. We're grateful for support from Guidestone, whose diversified suite of investment solutions align with Christian values to create positive change in the world. More information is available at guidestonefunds.com slash faith. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. Carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of Guidestone Funds before investing.
They're distributed by Forside Funds Distributors LLC, which is not an advisory affiliate, a registered investment advisor, nor do they provide investment advice. Hey, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. We've got time for more questions today.
Something going on in your financial life you want to talk about? Give us a call. We'll help you process it through the lens of scripture, but help you make a practical decision. Whether it's your lifestyle and your spending plan, reining in your spending, balancing that budget, maybe it's investing for the future, given all the uncertainty. How do you save effectively, build up that emergency fund, pay off debt, improve that credit score, whatever it is?
Call right now: 800-525-7000. We've got a few lines open. Let's head back to the phones to North Carolina. Lacey, go ahead. Hi, um, I'm calling because Yeah.
trying to organize What I have which includes Some inherited stock. Savings, IRA, annuity. And insurance inheritance. In a house. Oh boy.
Yeah.
My dad lived to 100. I'm only seventy, almost seventy two, so I've got a plan for thirty years without working to ninety-nine. Yes. I am prepped working part-time.
Okay. I get Social Security, I waited until the year I turned 70 to start taking that. Great. And And I work I make about the same amount per month. Yeah.
My husband who is um bedbound, full care. She gets Social Security of about three thousand.
So right now we have about a nine thousand dollar a month income, which we don't need. Yeah, wow. We're using a fix up dad's house, but Okay. Yeah, I mean, you're in really good shape here, but I think you're right. I mean, you'll feel a lot better once kind of everything is, you know, where it is.
You've got good records. You don't feel like, you know, I've got all these pieces and I don't know where they are. And this is really just kind of a prime situation, Lacey, for an advisor, a financial advisor who you could meet with a couple of times a year, who could, you know, open one or several accounts for you that he or she would manage, you know, help you get a plan to know, first of all, how much is enough? Like, what is your savings goal to be able to fund your lifestyle? Because to your point, you may live past 100.
You know, if longevity is in your family and you're healthy, you need this money to last a long time. We want to make sure we've got your estate in order.
So durable power of attorney, a healthcare surrogate or a medical power of attorney, an up-to-date will, a living will. We need to make sure we know what's the status of that annuity. and what needs to be done with it and and when do you want to quote annuitize it If at all, you know, where are those investments that you inherited and get all those in one place? You know, make sure that the house has been dealt with in terms of a transfer on death deed or, you know, just anything that considerations there. And an advisor could really help you put all this together so you feel like you know where everything's at, you know, nothing's on autopilot, somebody's looking after it, and then you've got somebody to call when you have questions.
So I would recommend you reach out to a certified kingdom advisor there in North Carolina. You could go to our website, findacka.com. Findacka.com. CKA stands for certified kingdom advisor. There's about 1,800 of them around the country.
This is the only designation. For biblically wise financial advice, where these advisors have met high standards in training and character and competence and pastor reference, client reference, code of ethics, statement of faith, I mean, all of it. Plus, they've been trained to bring a biblical perspective of financial decision-making to their clients.
So that would be the steps that I would take, Lacey, to kind of put all this together. Does that make sense, though? It does make sense. I don't know if I did that or not. I met with I have IRA and annuity with a denomination based insurance company.
Okay. So I was going to try to get everything, my stock into one of their stock places where they can just Right now, the stock is in a place where I can barely access getting records because They misspelled my name.
Now I'm going to have to. Do a medallion to get that changed and all sorts of crazy stuff. Sure.
Well, if you've got a trusted relationship where you feel like you've got somebody where you can pick up the phone and they're on top of things and you meet, you know, at least. Once, if not twice a year, and everything's kind of been, you know where to go to access it and all of that, that's great. If you don't have that and you feel like you're still kind of uncertain, even though you've got somebody who sold you the annuity or who has the investment account, you may want to look at making a change there. But I think that's the key: you need to get all this buttoned up. If there was an error on the titling, let's use the medallion signature, get that updated.
But you need that trusted advisor who's kind of walking with you, helping you answer the question: how much is enough? How much do you need every month to fund your expenses? And then what are we doing with the rest? Maybe you can accelerate your giving right now, or maybe you need to continue to save because of your husband's health status and mounting expenses that will come even more so in the future.
So, just having that advisor who can walk with you is really important. But I hope that helps, and we appreciate your call today. It sounds like you're doing great, and I know it's a lot, but it sounds like God has blessed you, and we're grateful to hear that. Thanks for being on the program. To Chicago, Patricia, you'll be our final caller.
We have just a minute and a half. Go ahead. I have two children that are in their late 30s now and they owe a lot of money on college debt. And I'm thinking about paying them off, and I'm wondering if I can use my money and well, I can use my money, but it's in like 401ks, IRA, Roth IRA. Is there any way that I can not have to pay taxes, like pretending I bought a 529 many years ago, but I didn't, but not I couldn't afford to do it then, but now I can, but it's all in different accounts.
Or can I get student aid?
So one of the debts is on studentaid.government. Can I get them to lower some of the student debt that one of my kids has? But one of my kids is on forbearance.
So she doesn't pay any she hardly pays any money on this, but they're constantly adding interest. And I'd love to see them not to have college debt. And I don't know really what else to do. And this would all come from my retirement money. Yeah.
Well, just keep in mind here, and I appreciate your desire to help and want to help set them up for the future. And that's admirable. I just want you to be aware that, you know, they have a long time to save for retirement and you don't. And so, you know, by you pulling this money out of retirement to pay it off. You know, they've got a whole working life ahead of them to get these paid off.
Whereas if you're pulling needed funds from your retirement, you won't have that. There's not a way to get around that from a tax standpoint because you essentially have to take a withdrawal, which if it's a traditional IRA, is taxable. If it's a Roth, it would not be taxable if you're over 59 and a half. But then again, that money is not there for the future.
So, you know, if anything, maybe just make a gift to them out of current cash flow if you have that ability. But I'd be real hesitant for you to pull that out of your retirement accounts, pay tax on it, and not have it available. I'm out of time today, Patricia. Thanks for your call. Thanks to Amy, Tahira, Jim, and Peter.
Thank you as well. We'll see you next time. Faith in Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you. Yeah.
